A giant wine bottle is displayed at the Summerhill Pyramid Winery in Kelowna, B.C., in Feb. 2024. Home to more than 180 licensed grape wineries and known as “the wine capital of Canada,” the Okanagan Valley is also nationally renowned for fruit orchards that produce apples, peaches and cherries.
(Aaron Hemens/IndigiNews via AP)
Global warming poses great challenges to Canada’s wine industry. But in these challenges lie equally great opportunities to build a better, and more sustainable, wine industry.
Winemakers need to understand the full extent of climate change impacts on the industry, including how changes in temperature and humidity may affect the microbes that ferment grapes.
Jean-Philippe Weisskopf, Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale (HES-SO) and Philippe Masset, Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale (HES-SO)
In the face of climate change, research shows it might be best not to put all one’s grapes in one basket.